What is the world?
Professor Cathy Nutbrown
Monday, February 23, 2015
'What is the world?' This lovely question from a four-year-old was the start of a fantastic conversation between her and her mother.
Numerous attempts to provide a satisfactory answer were not deemed
satisfactory by Anna; it's worth repeating in full.
Anna: 'Mummy, what's the world?' Mum: 'It's were we all live.'
Anna: 'No - that's our house.' Mum: 'We live in our house, but everyone, all the people, live in the world.'
Anna: 'But they have houses like us!' Mum: 'Well everyone's house is in the world; we all live on the earth.'
Anna: 'Some people live on a boat, not earth.' Mum: 'Yes and some people live in sandy places or on mountains or in snowy places, but all those places are in the world.'
Anna: 'Can we see the world?' Mum: 'Well, it's all around us - the sky, our garden, the seaside, fields, hills; that's the entire world.'
Anna: 'But can we see it?' Mum: 'Yes - we can see it now.'
Anna: 'Mummy, the world is a little round ball, Jamie has one - he brought it (to preschool) - it's got brown and blue and yellow and green swirls on it - it's little - you can hold it in your hand.' Mum: 'That's a model of the world, to show what it looks like - the real world is here now where we are, the place where we all, all people in the world live.'
Anna: 'I'm not sure; I'll ask Jamie tomorrow.'
Children's wonderful questions about themselves, their life and the purpose of things is refreshingly insightful.
Work by Jean Piaget and Susan and Nathan Isaacs into children's 'why' questions showed how deeply thoughtful young children are, and how adults need to try their best to provide good answers that satisfy young minds. Some other thoughtful questions that I have heard include: 'Why is there a sky?', 'Why does the sea go in and out?' and 'Why are we?' These are questions that scientists, philosophers have asked.
By their questions, young children show what wonderful thinkers they are, and remind us what a privilege it is to work with them, and for them. As Robert Fulghum said in his essay 'All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten': 'Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school".
So, what is the world?
